1. Field
The present disclosure relates to an outdoor unit of an air conditioner and control device for the outdoor unit, which has an improved structure to control temperatures of electronic parts.
2. Description of the Related Art
An air conditioner is a device that uses refrigeration cycles to control temperature, humidity, etc., to be right for human activities and simultaneously, eliminate e.g., dust in the air. The air conditioner includes an evaporator that cools the surrounding air by evaporating a refrigerant, a compressor that compresses the gas refrigerant coming out of the evaporator into a state of high temperature and high pressure, a condenser that condenses the compressed gas refrigerant into a room temperature liquid state, and an expansion valve that decompresses the high pressure liquid refrigerant.
The air conditioner may be classified into split types and integrated types, among which the split type air conditioner includes an indoor unit installed indoors for sucking in room air, forcing the air to exchange heat with a refrigerant, and discharging the heat-exchanged air back into the room, and an outdoor unit for forcing the refrigerant flowing in from the indoor unit to exchange heat with outdoor air and supplying the refrigerant back to the indoor unit to exchange heat with the room air. The outdoor unit is commonly equipped with the compressor and condenser.
Further, a control device including electronic parts to control the outdoor unit is also equipped in the outdoor unit. The electronic parts may produce heat while operating, and the heat influences the performance of the electronic parts. Accordingly, a cooling device is employed in the outdoor unit to maintain the right temperature for the electronic parts while the air conditioner is working.
The cooling device adopts a cooling method that uses outdoor air and/or a cooling method that uses a refrigerant circulating in the air conditioner. However, cooling efficiency of the cooling unit is degraded when the outdoor unit is operating under a high temperature of about 40° C. or more. Specifically, in case of cooling by using outdoor air, the cooling efficiency is lowered as the temperature of the outdoor air rises; in case of cooling by using a refrigerant, the rise of pressure of the refrigerant due to high temperature requires a lower operating frequency of the compressor that circulates the refrigerant, which leads to less circulation of the refrigerant and thus to degradation of the cooling efficiency.